With Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. __ (2015) the law of the land has shifted substantially and expansively. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses provide that marriage is a fundamental right of all people—one that may not be restricted on the basis of sexual orientation. We last visited the subject of marriage equality in our mediation column in the summer of 2011, just after the Marriage Equality Act passed in New York State.
Now, with this dramatic decision from the U.S. Supreme Court still fresh in our minds, a new range of issues arises around questions of parental rights of legally married same-sex couples. Indeed, while there has been a seismic shift in the legal definition of marriage, there has not yet followed a full understanding of how courts will address the legal definition of parent in same-sex families. In other words, the biological imperative coexists now in tension with the legal.
